In an electronic commerce (“ecommerce”) environment, many transactions are conducted in a manner in which a buyer pays for an item (e.g., causes a credit card transaction to commence) at the same time as the buyer is committing to purchase the item. For example, a buyer may place an item in a shopping cart and “check out”. The check out process can then involve both committing to purchase the item and establishing the payment for the item.
In other ecommerce environments, however, the act of committing to purchase an item may be separate from the act of paying for an item. One example is in the realm of online auctions, where a buyer may enter a bid for an item without knowing whether or not the bid will be successful. A successful bid automatically can turn into a commitment to purchase when the auction closes, but the buyer may not pay for the item until later. Unfortunately this can create an opportunity for malicious and/or unreliable users to create havoc with the system by, either intentionally or unintentionally, committing to purchase items without ever paying for them. In an auction scenario, this results in the seller either needing to contact another buyer who bid on the item to see if they wish to purchase for the “presumably lower” second place bid, after waiting a reasonable period of time for the original “buyer” to pay, or even needing to relist the auction and start over, wasting time. This can be especially damaging if a seller is in a rush to sell the item, such as wanting to get rid of the item due to an impending move. This problem can also occur in non-auction scenarios, where a seller will wind up holding the item and preventing other potential buyer from purchasing it while waiting for the “original buyer” to pay, causing potential lost sales.